THERE’S a mini-Russian spring happen ing at American Ballet Theatre, some of it by accident — literally.

Bolshoi Ballet sensation Ivan Vasiliev wasn’t supposed to dance with the company, though his fiancée, Natalia Osipova, was hired as a guest. But when one of the company’s male stars was injured, Vasiliev was pressed into service — and he wowed the crowd at Thursday’s opening night of “Coppelia.”

Vasiliev has thighs like pile drivers and a jump to match. He didn’t dance with Osipova, but with Xiomara Reyes, a little Cuban powerhouse with sharp, strong technique.

The ballet is an enduring comedy from the 19th century, done in an old-fashioned version with old-fashioned virtues, including a wonderful Delibes score that’s by turns brassy, folksy and tenderly soaring.

The title character is actually a nondancing bit part; the real story is of Swanilda and Franz. They love one another, but Franz can’t take his eyes off the girl in the balcony across the town square: Coppelia, the “daughter” of dollmaker Dr. Coppelius. It’s not the first time a guy has preferred a mechanical object to a real woman.

Swanilda is a spunky hell-raiser, and Reyes is a natural in the part. Vasiliev is so amiable that he makes Franz’s wandering eye easy to forgive. This version of the story lacks the darker shadings of other versions. Victor Barbee helps set the tone as Dr. Coppelius, less a mad scientist than eccentric dollmaker.

When the ballet first was done in Paris in 1870, Franz was played by a woman. He’s been danced by a real man for a long time, but his part shouldn’t be turbocharged with tricks. Still, right before the end, Vasiliev and Reyes pull out all the stops. He does a circuit of jumps so big that one dancer had to move himself — and the bench he was sitting on — quickly out of the way. Reyes follows by balancing in slow rotation like a music-box figurine, then speeding through whipping turns.

“Coppelia” is light, comic fun that breezes by quickly. If this version has a moral, it’s the lesson Dr. Coppelius learns: If you build yourself a daughter, don’t go with a teenager.

Barring other injuries, Vasiliev isn’t scheduled to dance again, but you can see his bride-to-be as Swanilda on Monday, and also July 6 in “The Sleeping Beauty.” Like Vasiliev, she should be a pretty safe bet — hardly Russian roulette.